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Seeking pay parity with central peers, doctors say they’ll stir

TNN | Updated: Jul 6, 2018, 07:27 IST

CHENNAI: Around 6,000 members of the Service Doctors’ and Post Graduate Doctors’ Association of Tamil Nadu have said they will strike work from Friday demanding pay parity with their counterparts in central government service. Three government doctors have been on indefinite fast since Monday to attract the government’s attention to the issue. “We have been demanding pay parity since 1988. Ten years ago, the government assured us it will be done. It is yet to be implemented,” said Dr A Ramalingam of the association. The salary for doctors in state and central services is the same when they join duty, but doctors in central government services receive promotions in four, nine, 13 and 20 years, compared to eight, 15, 17 and 20 years in the state. “The central government follows a dynamic assured career progression pattern. Here we get their fourth-year salary in our 15th year,” Ramalingam told reporters. A doctor joining government medical service receives Rs 15,600 + Rs 5,400 basic salary when they join and net pay of close to Rs 40,000. After nearly 10 years of service and one promotion in eight years, a government doctor receives a salary of Rs 42,949 with a basic of Rs 17,930 + Rs 5,400. The association submitted a petition to the health department eight months ago. “We are now told the file is still pending with the finance department,” he said. One of the three doctors who had been on fast on the premises of Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital was admitted to the hospital on Thursday after his condition deteriorated. R Karthikeyan, an assistant surgeon in Tiruvannamalai Government Hospital, declined food “But he is allowing us to treat him,” said a duty doctor. C Saminathan from Virudhachalam Government Hospital and Perumal Pillai S, an assistant professor at Institute of Child Health, continued the fast.